Nearly 300 young musicians, their teachers and staff from their music school fled Afghanistan in fear for their lives as the Taliban took power. NPR caught up with them during their U.S. tour,



Whatever happened to ... the young Afghan musicians who fled after the Taliban took over?

Three years ago, a group of young musicians from Afghanistan and their teachers fled Kabul to remake their lives as a community in northern Portugal. Now, they are touring the U.S.


Young Afghan musicians are rebuilding their art together, in Portugal

A fictional tale of the real-life Jewish community in Shanghai during World War II — with a cross-cultural love story at its heart — is premiering at the New York Philharmonic on Thursday.


A story of Jewish Shanghai, told through music

H. Sinno, former lead singer of the pioneering Lebanese rock band Mashrou' Leila, pairs their own history with that of the Metropolitan Museum's Temple of Dendur in their new opera.


An ancient Egyptian temple in New York inspires a Lebanese American musician

Review: Actors Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan give warm, deeply sympathetic performances as wide-ranging musician Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn, in ‘Maestro,’ a biopic directed by Cooper.


Bradley Cooper's 'Maestro' chronicles the brilliant Leonard Bernstein — and his disorderly conduct

An opera about civil rights leader Malcolm X opens Friday — nearly 40 years after X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X premiered. The creative team says its message feels more relevant than ever.


Malcolm X arrives — finally — at New York's Metropolitan Opera

A new live stage show features actor John Malkovich transformed into some of the meanest music critics ever — in real reviews skewering the work of great composers like Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin.


Even Beethoven got bad reviews, as John Malkovich points out in 'The Music Critic'

WCPE says that six contemporary operas being presented this season by the Metropolitan Opera — including ones dealing with violence, race and LGBTQ issues — are "unsuitable" for broadcast.



Update: On Thursday afternoon, a listener-supported station in North Carolina, WCPE, reversed its decision to withhold the broadcast of six contemporary operas this season from the Metropolitan Opera. The reversal came after public outcry from notable figures including Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens and author and journalist Celeste Headlee.


N.C. radio station reverses decision to withhold broadcast of contemporary Met operas

Octavia Butler's novel ‘Parable of the Sower’ — depicting a dystopian U.S. in 2024 — was published 30 years ago. Toshi Reagon's new musical retelling explores the web of past, present and future.


Octavia Butler wrote a 'Parable' that became a prophecy — now it's also an opera

Composer Robert Beaser has been fired from the renowned performing arts conservatory after an independent investigation found that he had broken Juilliard policies and "misrepresented facts."


Anastasia Tsioulcas

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